tle grey-headed man was
watching us from a window.

I looked up and nodded.

"Good day," I said.

"Ah like boxing," said the man. "Ah've bin twelve years in the States,
an' Ah'd rather see boxing than a bull-fight. You like baseball?"

I shook my head.

"I've never seen it," I said.

"Haven't missed much," was the reply. "But Ah like boxing. You
visiting Spain?"

"For a few days."

"'S a fine country. Bin to Sevilla?"

Entirely ignoring the violence which he had just witnessed, to say
nothing of our trespass upon his property and our continued attention
to his horse, the farmer proceeded to discuss the merits and
shortcomings of Spain with as much detached composure as if we had met
him in a tavern.

At length Jonah got up.

"Will you sell me this horse?"

"Yes," said the man. "Ah will."

"What d'you want for him?"

"Five hundred pesetas."

"Right," said Jonah. "Have you got a halter?"

The man disappeared. Presently he emerged from a door halter in hand.

The twenty pounds passed, and Zed was ours.

Tenderly my cousin fitted the halter about the drooping head.

"One more effort, old chap," he said gently, turning towards the
gate....

Out of compassion for the mules, I drew the farmer's attention to the
hub which was nursing the gatepost.

He just nodded.

"Pedro could never drive," he said.

"I should get a new carter," I said.

He shrugged his shoulders. Then he jerked his head in the direction of
the carcase upon the midden.

"He is my step-father. We do not speak," he said simply.

We found the others in the hamlet through which we had passed. There I
handed over Ping to Adele, and thence Jonah and Zed and I walked to
Zumaya.

To find a box at the station was more than we had dared hope for, but
there it was--empty and waiting to be returned to San Sebastian.
Beneath the influence of twenty-five pesetas, the station-master saw no
good reason why it should not be returned by the evening train.

We left Jonah to accompany his horse and hurried home by car to seek a
stable.

When we sat down to dinner that night at eight o'clock, Jonah called
for the wine-list and ordered a magnum of champagne.

When the wine was poured, he raised his glass and looked at me.

"Thank you for helping me," he said. He glanced round with his eyes
glowing. "And all of you for being so glad." He drank and touched
Adele upon the shoulder. "In a loose-box, up to his knees in straw,
w